In the field of medicine, a large number of catheters having various designs or catheter-like devices (e.g., electrode leads) are known and are used on a large scale. They are used in part by experienced specialists, but also in part by physicians or medical personnel who do not have special knowledge or experience. Regardless of whether the user is experienced or not, harm or injury to the patient must be reliably ruled out.
When known catheters comprising a plastic or metal tip are used, there is risk of perforation. To minimize the surface pressure and, therefore, the risk of perforation, compromises must be struck in respect of the stiffness of the catheter shaft and the catheter tip. Under certain circumstances, these compromises limit the maneuverability and positional stability of the catheter. In addition, conventional catheters or electrode leads are “blind” when wall contact occurs in a vessel or hollow organ, i.e., they are incapable of providing the operator with information related to the contact. To assess the situation, the operator must rely on his/her manual dexterity and x-ray monitoring, if available.
Developments in recent years have focused on implementing a contact or force sensor function on a distal catheter tip. For example, International Publication No. WO 2005/011511 makes known a related force sensor based on optical fibers, in the case of which light transmitted to the catheter tip via a first optical fiber and directed back from the tip via a second optical fiber is modulated via reflectance in a deformation region on the catheter tip and, therefore, contact is detected. Additionally, International Publication No. WO 2008/003307 makes known an electrically operating force sensor for detecting a force vector, which can likewise be used on a catheter or a similar technical medical device.
Another group of developers is responsible for a series of publications which describe a three-axial fiber optic force sensor and a catheter equipped therewith: see, for example U.S. Publication No. 2008/0009750, International Publication No. WO 2009/007857 and/or U.S. Publication No. 2009/0177095. The optical fiber force sensor system used in this context operates according to the Fabry-Perot principle with a cylinder segmented in the longitudinal direction in the distal end region of the catheter body, and utilizes changes in reflectivity at the gaps between the cylinder segments to detect contact at the catheter tip.
A problem addressed by the present invention is that of providing an improved catheter which can be used even by less experienced personnel without risk of harm or injury to the patient, yet is designed such that the requirements for clinical application are still met and the use-value thereof is increased overall.
The present invention is directed toward overcoming one or more of the above-identified problems.